Ten years ago: Chlorine gas from train crash kills 3 near San Antonio

Chlorine gas fumes rise from a train derailment near Loop 1604 and Nelson Road in San Antonio on Monday, June 28, 2004. The gas released by the collision 10 years ago killed three people and sent 50 people to area hospitals, according to San Antonio Express-News archives.

Photo By Jerry Lara/San Antonio Express-News

A poisonous plume of chlorine gas rises up above the derailment on June 28, 2004.
The collision sent plumes of chlorine gas and ammonium nitrate
wafting around nearby homes and as far away as SeaWorld, 10 miles
to the north, the Express-News reported.

Photo By Lisa Krantz/San Antonio Express-News

Emergency personnel work at the command center set up for the train derailment on June 28, 2004. According to Express-News reports, it took rescue workers nearly seven hours to reach four stranded people — two of whom died — in two adjacent houses near the collision.

Photo By Jerry Lara/San Antonio Express-News

San Antonio Fire Department personnel wait near the site of a train derailment along Nelson Road near Old Pearsall Road on June 28, 2004. Bexar County Fire Marshal Carl Mixon told the Express-News the next day that the deadly chlorine gas kept emergency personnel — even in their most durable hazmat suits and wearing oxygen masks — from performing any kind of rescue.

Photo By Lisa Krantz/San Antonio Express-News

Deadly chlorine gas fumes rise from the train derailment near Loop 1604 and Nelson Road in San Antonio on June 28, 2004. The collision occurred when a 123-car Burlington Northern train, headed from Eagle Pass to Tulsa, Oklahoma, was performing a normal railroad switching operation and was hit by a 74-car Union Pacific train that had left Houston and was bound for Tucson, Arizona, according to Express-News reports.

Photo By Jerry Lara/San Antonio Express-News

Personnel gather near the train derailment along Nelson Road near Old Pearsall Road on June 28, 2004.
At the time, the crash was the deadliest chemical accident on the rails in more than a decade, according to Express-News reports.

Photo By Lisa Krantz/San Antonio Express-News

Poisonous chlorine gas fumes rise from the train derailment near Loop 1604 and Nelson Road in San Antonio on June 28, 2004. Authorities told the Express-News at the time that the collision derailed 17 Burlington Northern and 19 Union Pacific railroad cars, as well as four locomotives.

Photo By Courtesy Photo

Lois Koerber, 59, died from chlorine gas inhalation as a result of the collision. She lived in a home just across a field, about 200 feet from the railroad tracks, according to Express-News archives.

Photo By Courtesy Photo

Koerber lived with her mother, Gene Hale, 85, who also died from exposure to the deadly gas.

Photo By Courtesy Photo

Heath Pape, 23, a conductor for Union Pacific was also killed by the chlorine gas.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News archives

The front page of the San Antonio Express-News from Tuesday, June 29, 2004, reporting the train collision.

Photo By William Luther/San Antonio Express-News

Roy Hale (right) speaks Tuesday afternoon, June 29, 2004, about the status of his family members that were injured during the train wreck. "When I talked to my dad at 10 (a.m.), he said he had been calling
to get someone out there for four hours, " Hale told the Express-News in 2004. "We were
all on the phone calling everyone we could think of and they kept
saying, 'We know about it and we're doing the best we can.'"

Photo By William Luther/San Antonio Express-News

This aerial picture taken Wednesday, June 30, 2004, shows the work that has been done since the train collision two days prior.

Photo By William Luther/San Antonio Express-News

A tank car remained on its side near the railroad tracks on June 30, 2004, at the site where a Union Pacific train and a Burlington Northern train collided in Southwest Bexar County.

Photo By William Luther/San Antonio Express-News

A tank car remained on its side near the railroad tracks on June 30,
2004, at the site where a Union Pacific train and a Burlington Northern
train collided in Southwest Bexar County.

Photo By William Luther/San Antonio Express-News

Clean-up crews and officials examine some of the wreckage on June 30,
2004, at the site where a Union Pacific train and a Burlington Northern
train collided in Southwest Bexar County.

Photo By William Luther/San Antonio Express-News

A tank car remained on its side near the railroad tracks on June 30,
2004, at the site where a Union Pacific train and a Burlington Northern
train collided in Southwest Bexar County.

Photo By Kin Man Hui/San Antonio Express-News

Cesar, a Rottweiler-Labrador mix, is examined by veterinarian Dr. Mark Beissner as owner Ralph Velasquez stands by on June 30, 2004. Velasquez told the Express-News in 2004 that Cesar and his two other dogs, Xochitl and Popcorn, alerted his family to the deadly gas the morning of the train wreck. "They saved my kids' lives," Velasquez told the Express-News. "Anything they need, anything they want, they can have."

Photo By San Antonio Express-News file photo

Dead vegetation caused by hydrochloric acid created when the chlorine gas hit moist air surrounds the Nelson Road home of Gene Hale and Lois Koerber on Tuesday, July 13, 2004, more than two weeks after the collision. "I didn't realize how serious it was until I saw the grass (in the Hales' yard) turn yellow and brownish as if it had burned, " neighbor Richard Wilson told the Express-News in 2004.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News file photo

The tanker car believed to have leaked deadly chlorine gas lies at the train wreck site on Nelson Road on July 13, 2004. Officials told the Express-News in 2004 that 6,000 gallons
of chlorine gas spewed from the car after the accident.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News file photo

Railworkers shore up the railroad line at the point of impact of the train collision on July 13, 2004.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News file photo

Dead vegetation caused by hydrochloric acid created when the chlorine gas hit moist air surrounds the accident site on July 13, 2004, more than two weeks after the collision.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News file photo

Mary Hale (left) visits with a friend after returning home Thursday, July 15, 2004, near the site of the train wreck. Hale, 65, and her husband, Wayne Hale, 67, were hospitalized as a result of the chlorine gas released by the crash, but Wayne Hale's mother, Gene Hale, and her daughter, Lois Koerber, who lived nearby, were two of the people killed.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News file photo

Mary Hale breaks down at the sound of a nearby train, shortly after returning home from the hospital, on July 15, 2004. She is comforted by her son, Roy.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News file photo

On July 15, 2004, landowner Carl Nentwich takes a water sample on his property near the site of a train wreck that caused a chlorine leak.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News file photo

A caution sign and corroded keylock on the gate leading to the home of Wayne and Mary Hale is seen on Thursday, August 12, 2004. The two still have not moved back in following a nearby train wreck and chlorine release. They are living with their son, Roy, and returning to their home to clean and repair before moving back in.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News file photo

A rose blooms at the home of Wayne and Mary Hale on Aug. 12, 2004.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News file photo

The Hales, Wayne and Mary, work at their home on Aug. 12, 2004.

SAN ANTONIO — Ten years ago Saturday, a Southwest Bexar County neighborhood was overcome by poisonous cloud as chlorine gas billowed from a train collision. The gas killed three people and sent 50 people to area hospitals, according to San Antonio Express-News archives.

A Burlington Northern Santa Fe train was moving east onto a sidetrack and was struck by the westbound Union Pacific train, which failed to stop, Union Pacific spokesman John Bromley told the Express-News on Monday, June 28, 2004.

The gas leak caused by the crash, inside Loop 1604 near Nelson and Old Pearsall roads, caused residents to flee their homes.

Heath Pape, 23, a UP conductor on one of the trains, and two women, Lois Koerber, 59, and her mother, Gene Hale, 85, died as a result of the gas leak. Koerber and Hale were found in a house about a mile from the wreckage, according to Express-News reports.

According to Express-News archives, the collision was one of eight train derailments that happened in the San Antonio area that year.